1 Advancing EDA's Strategic Priorities Through Improved Performance Management Tom Guevara Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Regional Affairs AUBER 2011 October 11, 2011 Indianapolis, IN

EDA’s Mission To lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting innovation and competitiveness, preparing American regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy.

EDA: Leading the Federal Economic Development Agenda  Provide grant-based investments to state and local government, tribal organizations, universities, and non-profits in regions suffering from severe economic distress.  Target its investments to attract private capital investment and to create long-term, higher-skill, higher-wage jobs.  Focused on locally-developed, regionally-based economic development initiatives that contribute to economic growth and emphasize innovation, entrepreneurship, and regional competitiveness.  In FY 2010, EDA investments totaled approximately $285 million, which are expected to create or retain about 48,500 jobs and generate nearly $6 billion in private investment.

EDA Funding Priorities  Collaborative Regional Innovation  Public/Private Partnerships  National Strategic Priorities  Global Competitiveness  Environmentally-Sustainable Development  Economically Distressed and Underserved Communities

EDA’s Programs  Public Works and Economic Development  Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA)  Planning  Technical Assistance  Research and Evaluation

EDA’s Jobs Created/Retained and Private Investment Outcome Measures  Rely on grantee reports of jobs created/retained and how much private investment by the project itself (directly). EDA would like to understand better how its investment is benefiting a region’s economy.  GPRA Requirements: Grant recipients report jobs and private investment figures that resulted at 3, 6, and 9 years after the original grant award.  21 st Century Investments require additional impact measures that go beyond jobs created/retained and leveraged private investment (i.e. innovation metrics).

Key Characteristics 20 th Century Economic Development 21 st Century Economic Development Focus Domestic competition; Zero sum game Global competition & collaboration, innovation Approach Incentives to attract or retain cost-driven firms & industries Investments in talent & infrastructure to support innovation-driven clusters Role of Economic Development Practitioners Lead industry attraction and marketing efforts to firms & industries Broker innovation networks, connecting inventors, financiers, & transformers, to produce results Performance Metrics Quantity of jobs, number of firms attracted/retained Logic Model: Additional metrics for broader regional impact (i.e., Quality of jobs, wage and income growth, innovation). Outcomes Economic GrowthEconomic Growth, Sustainability, Diversification, Competitiveness, etc.

Enhancing EDA’s Performance Measurement Culture  Effective performance measurement helps management direct EDA resources to produce meaningful outcomes.  Adopt strategies that seek to leverage strengths and reduce inefficiencies for improved operational performance.  Identify what is being achieved by measuring additional outcomes that are meaningful.  Embarked in a comprehensive effort to improve EDA’s performance measurement-- transition to a Logic Model that aligns resources, activities, products, and services to achieve EDA’s mission..

Logic Model: Developing a Comprehensive Strategy

EDA: Developing the Performance Measurement Improvement Roadmap  Enables EDA’s navigation to a comprehensive performance measurement structure to assess the effect of its investments accurately and consistently with state-of- the-art metrics and methodologies  Depict the tasks and processes required to develop and implement performance measures to assess EDA’s impact  Display the ensuing deliverables resulting from these tasks and actions

Deliverables Planning and Development Implementation 3 rd Parties Roadmap: Performing a Comprehensive Strategy Timeline

DELIVERABLES INTERNAL ACTIVITIES 3rd PARTY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT IMPLEMENTATION TIMELINE

EDA-UNC Chapel Hill Research Design Project to Assess and Evaluate Economic Development Investments  Recent grant to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to build on EDA’s existing performance measurement strategies.  The proposed study includes a recommendation on an optimal data set that EDA could develop and use in measuring its performance. Co-PIs: Maryann P. Feldman at UNC and Andrew Reamer at George Washington University.  The data set could be collected and submitted by grantees to document results, or make use of easily accessible independent data sources.

EDA-UNC Chapel Hill Research Design Project to Assess and Evaluate Economic Development Investments  Indentify desired impacts of investments on regional economies  Indentify specific outcome and performance measures  Pilot proposed outcome and performance measures  Indentify opportunities to enhance existing data collection and data sets  Disseminate findings  Incorporate into logic model

Typology of Potential Economic Outcomes  Growth  Employment  Output  Incomes  Wages  Sustainability  Diversity  Resiliency

U.S. EDA Announces Registry to Connect Industry Clusters Across the Country

US Cluster Mapping Site: Strategic Objectives Support the effectiveness of cluster-based organizations across the US – Communicate their activities to a nation-wide audience – Identify the most appropriate partners in other clusters – Develop strategies based on data-rich analysis of current position Improve the quality of economic development practice at the state and local level – Provide rich data for policy analysis – Inform selection of most effective partners – Share best practices Strengthen the federal government’s toolkit for guiding cluster-based programs – Provide rich data for policy analysis – Inform selection of most effective partners

US Cluster Mapping Site: Elements Registry of cluster initiatives and other economic development organizations Data on the profile and performance of clusters and regional economies Tiered cluster registry with qualified cluster organization data based on multiple criteria Tools and best practices for analysis of cluster data and design of cluster-based policies Flexible interface with geographic maps integrating multiple types of data NOW NEXT LATER Data on regional business environment quality

Tying it All Together: Research, Practice and Tools  Harness the results from EDA supported research of cutting-edge economic development practices, methods, and tools to: Help EDA stakeholders utilize new economic methods in their applications and justifications. Help EDA advance an evidence-based culture, and disseminate best practices and new tools to national audiences.  Consider alternative methods to find evidence for mitigating contra-arguments to public-private collaborations.

micro-level data e.g., Indiana Business Research Center meso-level data e.g., Harvard Cluster Mapping Project macro-level data Federal and State Sources Tying it All Together: Macro- to Micro- Economic Development Data

Outcomes and Vision  A robust dataset containing comprehensive attributes of each EDA investment  State-of-the-art performance measurement methods to fully assess the impact of EDA investments  A broad focus on direct, indirect, and induced effects resulting from EDA-funded projects.  An effective communication strategy to publish and demonstrate the benefit of EDA investments to stakeholders, decision- makers, and the general public.

Thoughts and Next Steps  What are the likely challenges and limitations to our approach?  Where can we look for current best practices used to measure the impact of economic development initiatives?  Suggestions for variables and attributes to be collected for our dataset?  How should we craft our message using the new findings?

Contact Information U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration Washington, D.C Bryan Borlik Director Performance & National Programs (202)